My Dear Boy: Carrie Hughes's Letters to Langston Hughes, 1926-1938

Zenith and Descent, 1930–1934

Zenith and Descent 1930–1934 The correspondence in these five years records the long, arduous journey culminating in Carrie achieving the one shining moment in her adult life: her successful appearance on stage as an actress. Inasmuch as the letters document the pinnacle of her happiness, they also reveal empathy-inducing narratives of her descent into a valley of desperation, poverty, loneliness , and despair. Her determined rise and precipitous fall are more than a personal odyssey: they are emotional experiences undertaken by her entire family, both immediate and extended. Before and following her stage appearance, Carrie impresses upon Langston that loneliness is her constant companion. At times, she states it simply: “I am lonely.” The sheer simplicity of the statement powerfully evokes pathos and portrays a heartfelt, tender moment. More protracted, dramatic expressions effectively heighten her emotional emphasis: “All of Life is such a muddle. I don’t know what to do or say, and I am old and a pauper, and no use to anyone. I am just about given up the struggle.” This fatalistic excerpt represents one of the times Carrie effectively meditates on the meaning of her life. On Mother’s Day 1933, she essentially denies the reality of their relationship as she ruminates in a letter to Langston about the quality of her own performance as mother: “Langston, today made me wonder have I been all a Mother could be to you & Gwyn. I mean a poor Mother? Does it seem to you that I have been all the name implies, some time I feel you & I were never as close. Heart & heart as we should 40  zenith and descent be, but I have loved you very dearly and if I failed in some things it was lack of knowledge.” The introspection cuts both ways. This moment of self-reflection becomes an instance of stock taking, in which she assesses her life and how well she has acquitted herself as a mother. The passage is also a plea for a sign of affirmation. Carrie, like most poorly differentiated people, desperately needs the approval of others. Here she seeks Langston’s approbation. In quite another way, Carrie summons up a burst of emotion that demonstrates the possibility that she had at least intended to be a good mother. When the relationship between Langston and “Godmother” (as he called Charlotte Osgood Mason) collapses into disrepair, he identifies his resulting psychosomatic illness as a case of tapeworms. Carrie writes with all the fervor of a frantic mother on the verge of losing her child to death: “No matter what kind of engagements you have the best thing for you to do is come here to Mothers house and heal and be where I can wait on you, and take care of you fix you the right kind of food and save you your rent and expense until you are well. I can get you a good doctor here. . . . Come and get well. Now darling, mother wants you to do this for I know it is for the best. You would get well quicker. I can make you very comfortable.” Eventually he relents and returns to Cleveland where Carrie “mothers” him and provides for his well-being. From a Bowen perspective, her introspection effectively creates enmeshment in their relationship. True to her nature, she mentions the financial aspects of his coming to her to heal. She offers to save him his rent and expense until he gets well. No doubt Langston himself is desperate for the nursing care that Carrie can provide and, more importantly, for some attention from his mother. But if he ultimately seems unappreciative, the reason probably derives from her persistent efforts to bring him into the fold as a household provider. In getting him home, she manages to triangulate him into her relationships with Homer and Gwyn. The peripatetic Homer is in and out of Carrie’s home and life so much that she appeals to Langston for the financial and emotional support a husband and father should provide. In Homer’s absence , Carrie repeats a tiresome plea for Langston to return home and care for her and Gwyn. When Gwyn grows into adulthood, Carrie consistently babies him and appeals to Langston to help provide for Gwyn’s welfare. zenith and descent  41 Langston’s role in the family thus transforms from being the son to that of surrogate provider. In this position, he is fused into...